Jewish Exodus From Muslim Countries

The Jewish exodus from the Muslim world occurred during the 20th century, when approximately 900,000 Jews migrated, fled, or were expelled from Muslim-majority countries throughout Africa and Asia, primarily as a consequence of the establishment of the State of Israel. Large-scale migrations were also organized, sponsored, and facilitated by Zionist organizations such as Mossad LeAliyah Bet, the Jewish Agency, and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. The mass movement mainly transpired from 1948 to the early 1970s, with one final exodus of Iranian Jews occurring shortly after the Islamic Revolution in 1979–1980. An estimated 650,000 (72%) of these Jews resettled in Israel.

A number of small-scale Jewish migrations began across the Middle East in the early 20th century, with the only substantial '' aliyot'' (Jewish immigrations to the Land of Israel) coming from Yemen and Syria. Few Jews from Muslim countries immigrated during the British Mandate for Palestine. Prior to Israel's independence in 1948, approximately 800,000 Jews were living on lands that now make up the Arab world. Of these, just under two-thirds lived in the French- and Italian-controlled regions of North Africa, 15–20% lived in the Kingdom of Iraq, approximately 10% lived in the Kingdom of Egypt, and approximately 7% lived in the Aden Colony, Aden Protectorate and the Kingdom of Yemen. A further 200,000 Jews lived in the Imperial State of Iran and the Republic of Turkey. The first large-scale exoduses took place in the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from Iraq, Yemen, and Libya. In these cases, over 90% of the Jewish population left, leaving their assets and properties behind. Between 1948 and 1951, 250,000 Jews immigrated to Israel from Arab countries. In response, the Israeli government implemented policies to accommodate 600,000 immigrants over four years, doubling the country's Jewish population. Reactions in the Knesset were mixed; in addition to some Israeli officials, there were those within the Jewish Agency who opposed promoting a large-scale emigration movement among Jews whose lives were not in immediate danger.

Later waves peaked at different times in different regions over the subsequent decades. The exodus from Egypt peaked in 1956, following the Suez Crisis; emigrations from other North African countries peaked in the 1960s. Lebanon's Jewish population temporarily increased due to an influx of Jews from other Arab countries, before it dwindled by the mid-1970s. 600,000 Jews from Arab and Muslim countries had relocated to Israel by 1972,Malka Hillel Shulewitz, ''The Forgotten Millions: The Modern Jewish Exodus from Arab Lands'', Continuum 2001, pp. 139 and 155.Ada Aharon
"The Forced Migration of Jews from Arab Countries
, Historical Society of Jews from Egypt website. Accessed 1 February 2009. while another 300,000 migrated to France, the United States and Canada. Today, the descendants of Jews who immigrated to Israel from other Middle Eastern lands (known as Mizrahi Jews and Sephardic Jews) constitute more than half of all Israelis. By 2019, the total number of Jews in Arab countries and Iran had declined to 12,700,
 and in Turkey to 14,800.

The reasons for the exoduses include: pull factors such as the desire to fulfill Zionism, better economic prospects and security, and the Israeli government's "One Million Plan" to accommodate Jewish immigrants from Arab- and Muslim-majority countries; and push factors such as violent and other forms of antisemitism in the Arab world, political instability,: "... economic straits as their traditional role was whittled away, famine, disease, growing political persecution and increased public hostility, the state of anarchy after the murder of Yahya, a desire to be reunited with family members, incitement and encouragement to leave from ionist agents whoplayed on their religious sensibilities, promises that their passage would be paid to Israel and that their material difficulties would be cared for by the Jewish state, a sense that the Land of Israel was a veritable Eldorado, a sense of history being fulfilled, a fear of missing the boat, a sense that living wretchedly as dhimmis in an Islamic state was no longer God-ordained, a sense that as a people they had been flayed by history long enough: all these played a role. ... Purely religious, messianic sentiment too, had its part but by and large this has been overemphasised." poverty, and expulsion. The history of the exodus has been politicized, given its proposed relevance to the historical narrative of the Arab–Israeli conflict. Those who view the Jewish exodus as analogous to the 1948 Palestinian expulsion and flight generally emphasize the push factors and consider those who left to have been refugees, while those who oppose that view generally emphasize the pull factors and consider the Jews to have been willing immigrants.
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Background

At the time of the Muslim conquests of the 7th century, ancient Jewish communities had existed in many parts of the Middle East and North Africa since Antiquity. Jews under Islamic rule were given the status of dhimmi, along with Christians and certain other pre-Islamic religious groups. As such, these groups were accorded certain rights as "People of the Book".

During waves of persecution in Medieval Europe, many Jews found refuge in Muslim lands, though in other times and places, Jews fled persecution in Muslim lands and found refuge in Christian lands. Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula were invited to settle in various parts of the Ottoman Empire, where they would often form a prosperous model minority of merchants acting as intermediaries for their Muslim rulers.

Ella Shohat has described the Zionist master narrative of the migration of Jews from Muslim lands to Israel as a discourse in which "European Zionism 'saved' Sephardi Jews from the harsh rule of their Arab 'captors'" and "took them out of 'primitive conditions' of poverty and superstition and ushered them gently into a modern Western society characterized by tolerance, democracy, and 'humane values.'" She cites the impression of Israeli journalist in ''Haaretz'' in 1949:

''This is immigration of a race we have not yet known in the country .... We are dealing with people whose primitivism is at a peak, whose level of knowledge is one of virtually absolute ignorance, and worse, who have little talent for understanding anything intellectual. Generally, they are only slightly better than the general level of the Arabs, Negroes, and Berbers in the same regions. In any case, they are at an even lower level than what we knew with regard to the former Arabs of Eretz Israel ... . These Jews also lack roots in Judaism, as they are totally subordinated to the play of savage and primitive instincts... As with the Africans you will find card games for money, drunkenness and prostitution. Most of them have serious eye, skin and sexual diseases, without mentioning robberies and thefts. Chronic laziness and hatred for work, there is nothing safe about this asocial element... "Aliyat HaNoar" he official organization dealing with young immigrantsrefuses to receive Moroccan children and the Kibbutzim will not hear of their absorption among them.''

North Africa

French colonial rule

In the 19th century, Francization of Jews in the French colonial North Africa, due to the work of organizations such as the Alliance Israelite Universelle and French policies such as the Algerian citizenship decree of 1870, resulted in a separation of the community from the local Muslims.

France began its conquest of Algeria in 1830. The following century had a profound influence on the status of the Algerian Jews; following the 1870 Crémieux Decree, they were elevated from the protected minority dhimmi status to French citizens. The decree began a wave of Pied-Noir-led anti-Jewish protests (such as the 1897 anti-Jewish riots in Oran), which the Muslim community did not participate in, to the disappointment of the European agitators. Though there were also cases of Muslim-led anti-Jewish riots, such as in Constantine in 1934 when 34 Jews were killed.

Neighbouring Husainid Tunisia began to come under European influence in the late 1860s and became a French protectorate in 1881. Since the 1837 accession of Ahmed Bey, and continued by his successor Muhammed Bey, Tunisia's Jews were elevated within Tunisia society with improved freedom and security, which was confirmed and safeguarded during the French protectorate." Around a third of Tunisian Jews took French citizenship during the protectorate.

Morocco, which had remained independent during the 19th century, became a French protectorate in 1912. However, during less than half a century of colonization, the equilibrium between Jews and Muslims in Morocco was upset, and the Jewish community was again positioned between the colonisers and the Muslim majority. French penetration into Morocco between 1906 and 1912 created significant Morocco Muslim resentment, resulting in nationwide protests and military unrest. During the period a number of anti-European or anti-French protests extended to include anti-Jewish manifestations, such as in Casablanca, Oujda and Fes in 1907-08 and later in the 1912 Fes riots.

The situation in colonial Libya was similar; as in the French North African countries, the Italian influence in Libya was welcomed by the Jewish community, increasing their separation from the non-Jewish Libyans.

The Alliance Israélite Universelle, founded in France in 1860, set up schools in Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia as early as 1863.

World War II

During World War II, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya came under Nazi or Vichy French occupation and their Jews were subject to various forms of persecution. In Libya, the Axis powers established labor camps to which many Jews were forcibly deported.History of the Jewish Community in Libya
. Retrieved 1 July 2006 In other areas Nazi propaganda targeted Arab populations to incite them against British or French rule. National Socialist propaganda contributed to the transfer of racial antisemitism to the Arab world and is likely to have unsettled Jewish communities. An anti-Jewish riot took place in Casablanca in 1942 in the wake of Operation Torch, where a local mob attacked the Jewish mellah. (''Mellah'' is the Moroccan name for a Jewish ghetto.) However, according to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem's Dr. Haim Saadon, "Relatively good ties between Jews and Muslims in North Africa during World War II stand in stark contrast to the treatment of their co-religionists by gentiles in Europe.""Jewish-Muslim ties in Maghreb were good despite Nazis" by Gil Shefler
24 January 2011, ''The Jerusalem Post''

From 1943 until the mid-1960s, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee was an important foreign organization driving change and modernization in the North African Jewish community. It had initially become involved in the region whilst carrying out relief work during World War II.

Morocco

The migration of Moroccan Jews to Israel was sponsored, facilitated and administered by Zionist organizations, notably through Cadima (1949–1956) and Operation Yachin (1961–1964). As in Tunisia and Algeria, Moroccan Jews did not face large scale expulsion or outright asset confiscation or any similar government persecution during the period of exile, and Zionist agents were relatively allowed freedom of action to encourage emigration.: "... the policies adopted by Nasser's Egypt or Syria such as internment in prison camps, sequestration, or even outright confiscation of assets, and large-scale expulsions (as was the case with Egyptian Jews in 1956-57), were never implemented by Muhammad V, Hasan II, Bourguiba, or the FLN. The freedom of action granted in Algeria, Morocco (since 1961), and Tunisia to Jewish emigration societies... was unparalleled elsewhere in the Arab world. These organizations enjoyed greater legality than government opponents who were Muslims ... albeit managed by foreigners and financed from abroad."

In Morocco, the Vichy regime during World War II passed discriminatory laws against Jews; for example, Jews were no longer able to get any form of credit, Jews who had homes or businesses in European neighborhoods were expelled, and quotas were imposed limiting the percentage of Jews allowed to practice professions such as law and medicine to no more than two percent. King Mohammed V expressed his personal distaste for these laws, assuring Moroccan Jewish leaders that he would never lay a hand "upon either their persons or property". While there is no concrete evidence of him actually taking any actions to defend Morocco's Jews, it has been argued that he may have worked on their behalf behind the scenes.

In June 1948, soon after Israel was established and in the midst of the first Arab–Israeli war, violent anti-Jewish riots broke out in Oujda and Djerada, leading to deaths of 44 Jews. In 1948–49, after the massacres, 18,000 Moroccan Jews left the country for Israel. Later, however, Jewish migration from Morocco slowed to a few thousand a year. Following Moroccan independence in 1956, a new wave of Moroccan Jews emigrated from the country towards South America, Israel, France, and Spain.

Cadima

Through the early 1950s, Zionist organizations encouraged immigration, particularly in the poorer south of the country, seeing Moroccan Jews as valuable contributors to the Jewish State:

Incidents of anti-Jewish violence continued through the 1950s, although French officials later stated that Moroccan Jews "had suffered comparatively fewer troubles than the wider European population" during the struggle for independence. In August 1953, riots broke out in the city of Oujda and resulted in the death of four Jews, including an 11-year-old girl.Jews Killed in Morocco Riots; Raid on Jewish Quarter Repulsed
JTA, 24 August 1953. In the same month, French security forces prevented a mob from breaking into the Jewish ''mellah'' of Rabat. In 1954, a nationalist event in the town of Petitjean (known today as Sidi Kacem) turned into an anti-Jewish riot and resulted in the death of 6 Jewish merchants from Marrakesh. However, according to Francis Lacoste, French Resident-General in Morocco, "the ethnicity of the Petitjean victims was coincidental, terrorism rarely targeted Jews, and fears about their future were unwarranted."

In 1955, a mob broke into the Jewish ''mellah'' in Mazagan (known today as El Jadida) and caused its 1,700 Jewish residents to flee to the European quarters of the city. The houses of some 200 Jews were too badly damaged during the riots for them to return. In 1954, Mossad had established an undercover base in Morocco, sending agents and emissaries within a year to appraise the situation and organize continuous emigration. The operations were composed of five branches: self-defense, information and intelligence, illegal immigration, establishing contact, and public relations. Mossad chief Isser Harel visited the country in 1959 and 1960, reorganized the operations, and created a clandestine militia named the "Misgeret" ("framework").

Jewish emigration to Israel jumped from 8,171 people in 1954 to 24,994 in 1955, increasing further in 1956. Between 1955 and independence in 1956, Jews emigrated.Xavier Cornut, Jerusalem Post, 2009
The Moroccan connection: Exploring the decades of secret ties between Jerusalem and Rabat.
"In 1954, Mossad head Isser Harel decided to establish a clandestine base in Morocco. An undercover agent named Shlomo Havilio was sent to monitor the conditions of Jews in the country. His report was alarming: The Jews feared the departure of the French colonial forces and the growing hostility of pan-Arabism; Jewish communities could not be defended and their situation was likely to worsen once Morocco became independent. Havilio had only one solution: a massive emigration to Israel. Harel agreed. Less than a year after his report, the Mossad sent its first agents and emissaries to Morocco to appraise the situation and to organize a nonstop aliya. About Jews had emigrated between 1948 and 1955, and more would leave in the months preceding Morocco's independence. Then, on September 27, 1956, the Moroccan authorities stopped all emigration, declaring it illegal. From then until 1960 only a few thousand left clandestinely each year." On 7 April 1956, Morocco attained independence. Jews occupied several political positions, including three parliamentary seats and the cabinet position of Minister of Posts and Telegraphs. However, that minister, Leon Benzaquen, did not survive the first cabinet reshuffling, and no Jew was appointed again to a cabinet position. Although the relations with the Jewish community at the highest levels of government were cordial, these attitudes were not shared by the lower ranks of officialdom, which exhibited attitudes that ranged from traditional contempt to outright hostility. Morocco's increasing identification with the Arab world, and pressure on Jewish educational institutions to Arabize and conform culturally added to the fears of Moroccan Jews. Between 1956 and 1961, emigration to Israel was prohibited by law; clandestine emigration continued, and a further Jews left Morocco.

On 10 January 1961 the '' Egoz'', a Mossad-leased ship carrying Jews attempting to emigrate undercover, sank off the northern coast of Morocco. According to Tad Szulc, the Misgeret commander in Morocco, Alex Gattmon, decided to precipitate a crisis on the back of the tragedy, consistent with Mossad Director Isser Harel's scenario that "a wedge had to be forced between the royal government and the Moroccan Jewish community and that anti-Hassan nationalists had to be used as leverage as well if a compromise over emigration was ever to be attained". A pamphlet agitating for illegal emigration, supposedly by an underground Zionist organization, was printed by Mossad and distributed throughout Morocco, causing the government to "hit the roof". These events prompted King Mohammed V to allow Jewish emigration, and over the three following years, more than 70,000 Moroccan Jews left the country, primarily as a result of Operation Yachin.

In June 1961, reports surfaced regarding the continued removal of Jewish officials from prominent positions within the Moroccan government. M. Zaoui, the director of Conservation Fonciere in the Moroccan Finance Ministry, was dismissed without a specified reason. The extremist Muslim journal '' Al Oumal'' then launched a campaign against him, accusing him of Zionist affiliations. Earlier in the year, Meyer Toledano had also been removed from his role as judicial counselor to the Moroccan Foreign Ministry. Simultaneously, uneasiness arose among Moroccan Jews as they examined the 17 articles of the new "Fundamental Law" signed by King Hassan on 2 June. Article 15, in particular, raised concerns, emphasizing Morocco's commitment to the Arab League and the intention to strengthen ties with it. Although the new law did not revoke the equal rights of Jews and Muslims in Morocco, it notably omitted the term "Jew," and the first two articles underscored Morocco as an Arab and Muslim country with Islam as the official state religion.

Operation Yachin

Operation Yachin was fronted by the New York-based Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), who financed approximately $50 million of costs. HIAS provided an American cover for underground Israeli agents in Morocco, whose functions included organizing emigration, arming of Jewish Moroccan communities for self-defense and negotiations with the Moroccan government. By 1963, the Moroccan Interior Minister Colonel Oufkir and Mossad chief Meir Amit agreed to swap Israeli training of Moroccan security services and some covert military assistance for intelligence on Arab affairs and continued Jewish emigration.

By 1967, only 50,000 Jews remained. The 1967 Six-Day War led to increased Arab–Jewish tensions worldwide, including in Morocco, and significant Jewish emigration out of the country continued. By the early 1970s, the Jewish population of Morocco fell to 25,000; however, most of the emigrants went to France, Belgium, Spain, and Canada, rather than Israel.

According to Esther Benbassa, the migration of Jews from the North African countries was prompted by uncertainty about the future. In 1948, 250,000–265,000 Jews lived in Morocco. By 2001, an estimated 5,230 remained.

Despite their dwindling numbers, Jews continue to play a notable role in Morocco; the King retains a Jewish senior adviser, André Azoulay, and Jewish schools and synagogues receive government subsidies. Despite this, Jewish targets have sometimes been attacked (notably the 2003 bombing attacks on a Jewish community center in Casablanca), and there is sporadic antisemitic rhetoric from radical Islamist groups. Tens of thousands of Israeli Jews with Moroccan heritage visit Morocco every year, especially around Rosh Hashana or Passover, although few have taken up the late King Hassan II's offer to return and settle in Morocco.

Algeria

As in Tunisia and Morocco, Algerian Jews did not face large scale expulsion or outright asset confiscation or any similar government persecution during the period of exile, and Zionist agents were relatively allowed freedom of action to encourage emigration.

Jewish emigration from Algeria was part of a wider ending of French colonial control and the related social, economic and cultural changes.

The Israeli government had been successful in encouraging Morocco and Tunisian Jews to emigrate to Israel, but were less so in Algeria. Despite offers of visa and economic subsidies, only 580 Jews moved from Algeria to Israel in 1954–55.

Emigration peaked during the Algerian War of 1954–1962, during which thousands of Muslims, Christians and Jews left the country, particularly the Pied-Noir community. In 1956, Mossad agents worked underground to organize and arm the Jews of Constantine, who comprised approximately half the Jewish population of the country. In Oran, a Jewish counter-insurgency movement was thought to have been trained by former members of Irgun.

As of the last French census in Algeria, taken on 1 June 1960, there were non-Muslim civilians in Algeria, constituting 10 percent of the total population; this included Algerian Jews. After Algeria became independent in 1962, about ''Pieds-Noirs'' (including Jews) were evacuated to mainland France while about chose to remain in Algeria. Of the latter, there were still about in 1965 and about by the end of the 1960s."Pieds-noirs": ceux qui ont choisi de rester
La Dépêche du Midi, March 2012

As the Algerian Revolution intensified from the late 1950s onward, most of Algeria's Jews began to leave. The community had lived mainly in Algiers and Blida, Constantine, and Oran.

Between late 1961 and late summer 1962, 130,000 of Algeria's approximately 140,000 Jews left for France, while about 10,000 of them emigrated to Israel. Their "repatriation" represents a unique case in the history of Jewish migration given that even though they were psychologically uprooted, they "returned" to France as citizens and not as refugees.

The Great Synagogue of Algiers was consequently abandoned after 1994.

Jewish migration from North Africa to France led to the rejuvenation of the French Jewish community, which is now the third largest in the world.

Tunisia

As in Morocco and Algeria, Tunisian Jews did not face large scale expulsion or outright asset confiscation or any similar government persecution during the period of exile, and Jewish emigration societes were relatively allowed freedom of action to encourage emigration.

In 1948, approximately Jews lived in Tunisia. About 1500 remain today, mostly in Djerba, Tunis, and Zarzis. Following Tunisia's independence from France in 1956 emigration of the Jewish population to Israel and France accelerated. After attacks in 1967, Jewish emigration both to Israel and France accelerated. There were also attacks in 1982, in 1985 following Israel's Operation Wooden Leg, and most recently in 2002 when a bombing in Djerba took 21 lives (most of them German tourists) near the local synagogue, a terrorist attack claimed by Al-Qaeda.

Libya

According to Maurice Roumani, a Libyan emigrant who was previously the executive director of WOJAC, the most important factors that influenced the Libyan Jewish community to emigrate were "the scars left from the last years of the Italian occupation and the entry of the British Military in 1943 accompanied by the Jewish Palestinian soldiers".

Zionist emissaries, so-called ''shlichim'', had begun arriving in Libya in the early 1940s, with the intention to "transform the community and transfer it to Palestine". In 1943, Mossad LeAliyah Bet began to send emissaries to prepare the infrastructure for the emigration of the Libyan Jewish community.

In 1942, German troops fighting the Allies in North Africa occupied the Jewish quarter of Benghazi, plundering shops and deporting more than 2000 Jews across the desert. Sent to work in labor camps like Giado, more than one-fifth of that group of Jews perished. At the time, most Libyan Jews lived in the cities of Tripoli and Benghazi; there were smaller numbers in Bayda and Misrata. Following the Allied victory at the Battle of El Agheila in December 1942, German and Italian troops were driven out of Libya. The British assigned as garrison in Cyrenaica the Palestine Regiment. This unit later became the core of the Jewish Brigade, which was later also stationed in Tripolitania. The pro-Zionist soldiers encouraged the spread of Zionism throughout the local Jewish population.

Following the liberation of North Africa by Allied forces, antisemitic incitements were still widespread. The most severe racial violence between the start of World War II and the establishment of Israel erupted in Tripoli in November 1945. Over a period of several days more than 140 Jews (including 36 children) were killed, hundreds were injured, 4000 were displaced and 2,400 were reduced to poverty. Five synagogues in Tripoli and four in provincial towns were destroyed, and over 1000 Jewish residences and commercial buildings were plundered in Tripoli alone. Gil Shefler writes that "As awful as the pogrom in Libya was, it was still a relatively isolated occurrence compared to the mass murders of Jews by locals in Eastern Europe." The same year, violent anti-Jewish violence also occurred in Cairo, which resulted in 10 Jewish victims.

In 1948, about Jews lived in Libya. The pogroms continued in June 1948, when 15 Jews were killed and 280 Jewish homes destroyed. In November 1948, a few months after the events in Tripoli, the American consul in Tripoli, Orray Taft Jr., reported that: "There is reason to believe that the Jewish Community has become more aggressive as the result of the Jewish victories in Palestine. There is also reason to believe that the community here is receiving instructions and guidance from the State of Israel. Whether or not the change in attitude is the result of instructions or a progressive aggressiveness is hard to determine. Even with the aggressiveness or perhaps because of it, both Jewish and Arab leaders inform me that the inter-racial relations are better now than they have been for several years and that understanding, tolerance and cooperation are present at any top level meeting between the leaders of the two communities."

Immigration to Israel began in 1949, following the establishment of a Jewish Agency for Israel office in Tripoli. According to Harvey E. Goldberg, "a number of Libyan Jews" believe that the Jewish Agency was behind the riots, given that the riots helped them achieve their goal. Between the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and Libyan independence in December 1951 over Libyan Jews emigrated to Israel.

On 31 December 1958, the President of the Executive Council of Tripolitania ordered the dissolution of the Jewish Community Council and the appointment of a Muslim commissioner nominated by the Government. A law issued in 1961 required Libyan citizenship for the possession and transfer of property in Libya, a requirement that was met by only six Libyan Jews.

In 1967, during the Six-Day War, the Jewish population of over 4000 was again subjected to riots in which 18 were killed and many more injured. The pro-Western Libyan government of King Idris tried unsuccessfully to maintain law and order. On 17 June 1967, Lillo Arbib, leader of the Jewish community in Libya, sent a formal request to Libyan prime minister Hussein Maziq requesting that the government "allow Jews so desiring to leave the country for a time, until tempers cool and the Libyan population understands the position of Libyan Jews, who have always been and will continue to be loyal to the State, in full harmony and peaceful coexistence with the Arab citizens at all times."

According to David Harris, the executive director of the Jewish advocacy organization AJC, the Libyan government "faced with a complete breakdown of law and order ... urged the Jews to leave the country temporarily", permitting them each to take one suitcase and the equivalent of $50. Through an airlift and the aid of several ships, over 4000 Libyan Jews were evacuated to Italy by the Italian Navy, where they were assisted by the Jewish Agency for Israel. Of the Jews evacuated, 1,300 subsequently immigrated to Israel, 2,200 remained in Italy, and most of the rest went to the United States. A few scores remained in Libya. Some Libyan Jews who had been evacuated temporarily returned to Libya between 1967 and 1969 in an attempt to recover lost property. In September 1967 only 100 Jews remained in Libya, falling to less than 40 five years later in 1972 and just 16 by 1977.

On 21 July 1970 the Libyan government issued a law which confiscated assets of the Jews who had previously left Libya, issuing in their stead 15-year bonds. However, when the bonds matured in 1985 no compensation was paid. Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi later justified this on the grounds that "the alignment of the Jews with Israel, the Arab nations' enemy, has forfeited their right to compensation."

Although the main synagogue in Tripoli was renovated in 1999, it has not reopened for services. In 2002, Esmeralda Meghnagi, who was thought to be the last Jew in Libya, died. However, that same year, it was discovered that Rina Debach, an 80-year old Jewish woman who was thought to be dead by her family in Rome, was still alive and living in a nursing home in the country. With her subsequent departure for Rome, there were no more Jews left in Libya.

Israel is home to a significant population of Jews of Libyan descent, who maintain their unique traditions. Jews of Libyan descent also make up a significant part of the Italian Jewish community. About 30% of the registered Jewish population of Rome is of Libyan origin.

Middle East

Iraq

1930s and early 1940s

The British mandate over Iraq came to an end in June 1930, and in October 1932 the country became independent. The Iraqi government response to the demand of Assyrian autonomy (the Assyrians being the indigenous Eastern Aramaic-speaking Semitic descendants of the ancient Assyrians and Mesopotamians, and largely affiliated to the Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church and Syriac Orthodox Church), turned into a bloody massacre of Assyrian villagers by the Iraqi army in August 1933.

This event was the first sign to the Jewish community that minority rights were meaningless under the Iraqi monarchy. King Faisal, known for his liberal policies, died in September 1933, and was succeeded by Ghazi, his nationalistic anti-British son. Ghazi began promoting Arab nationalist organizations, headed by Syrian and Palestinian exiles. With the 1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine, they were joined by rebels, such as the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. The exiles preached pan-Arab ideology and fostered anti-Zionist propaganda.

Under Iraqi nationalists, Nazi propaganda began to infiltrate the country, as Nazi Germany was anxious to expand its influence in the Arab world. Dr. Fritz Grobba, who resided in Iraq since 1932, began to vigorously and systematically disseminate hateful propaganda against Jews. Among other things, Arabic translation of ''Mein Kampf'' was published and Radio Berlin had begun broadcasting in Arabic language. Anti-Jewish policies had been implemented since 1934, and the confidence of Jews was further shaken by the growing crisis in Palestine in 1936. Between 1936 and 1939 ten Jews were murdered and on eight occasions bombs were thrown on Jewish locations.

In 1941, immediately following the British victory in the Anglo-Iraqi War, riots known as the Farhud broke out in Baghdad in the power vacuum following the collapse of the pro-Axis government of Rashid Ali al-Gaylani while the city was in a state of instability. 180 Jews were killed and another 240 wounded; 586 Jewish-owned businesses were looted and 99 Jewish houses were destroyed.

In some accounts the Farhud marked the turning point for Iraq's Jews. Other historians, however, see the pivotal moment for the Iraqi Jewish community much later, between 1948 and 1951, since Jewish communities prospered along with the rest of the country throughout most of the 1940s,, quote(1): " s a resultof the economic boom and the security granted by the government. ... Jews who left Iraq immediately after the riots, later returned." Quote(2): "Their dream of integration into Iraqi society had been dealt a severe blow by the farhud but as the years passed self-confidence was restored, since the state continued to protect the Jewish community and they continued to prosper." Quote(3): Quoting Enzo Sereni: "The Jews have adapted to the new situation with the British occupation, which has again given them the possibility of free movement after months of detention and fear."London Review of Books, Vol. 30 No. 21 • 6 November 2008, pages 23–25, Adam Shatz
"Yet Sasson Somekh insists that the farhud was not 'the beginning of the end'. Indeed, he claims it was soon 'almost erased from the collective Jewish memory', washed away by 'the prosperity experienced by the entire city from 1941 to 1948'. Somekh, who was born in 1933, remembers the 1940s as a 'golden age' of 'security', 'recovery' and 'consolidation', in which the 'Jewish community had regained its full creative drive'. Jews built new homes, schools and hospitals, showing every sign of wanting to stay. They took part in politics as never before; at Bretton Woods, Iraq was represented by Ibrahim al-Kabir, the Jewish finance minister. Some joined the Zionist underground, but many more waved the red flag. Liberal nationalists and Communists rallied people behind a conception of national identity far more inclusive than the Golden Square's Pan-Arabism, allowing Jews to join ranks with other Iraqis – even in opposition to the British and Nuri al-Said, who did not take their ingratitude lightly." and many Jews who left Iraq following the Farhud returned to the country shortly thereafter and permanent emigration did not accelerate significantly until 1950–51.

Either way, the Farhud is broadly understood to mark the start of a process of politicization of the Iraqi Jews in the 1940s, primarily among the younger population, especially as a result of the impact it had on hopes of long term integration into Iraqi society. In the direct aftermath of the Farhud, many joined the Iraqi Communist Party in order to protect the Jews of Baghdad, yet they did not want to leave the country and rather sought to fight for better conditions in Iraq itself. At the same time the Iraqi government that had taken over after the Farhud reassured the Iraqi Jewish community, and normal life soon returned to Baghdad, which saw a marked betterment of its economic situation during World War II.

Shortly after the Farhud in 1941, Mossad LeAliyah Bet sent emissaries to Iraq to begin to organize emigration to Israel, initially by recruiting people to teach Hebrew and hold lectures on Zionism. In 1942, Shaul Avigur, head of Mossad LeAliyah Bet, entered Iraq undercover in order to survey the situation of the Iraqi Jews with respect to immigration to Israel. During the 1942–43, Avigur made four further trips to Baghdad to arrange the required Mossad machinery, including a radio transmitter for sending information to Tel Aviv, which remained in use for 8 years.

In late 1942, one of the emissaries explained the size of their task of converting the Iraqi community to Zionism, writing that "we have to admit that there is not much point in rganizing and encouraging emigration ... We are today eating the fruit of many years of neglect, and what we didn't do can't be corrected now through propaganda and creating one-day-old enthusiasm." It was not until 1947 that legal and illegal departures from Iraq to Israel began. Around 8000 Jews left Iraq between 1919 and 1948, with another 2000 leaving between mid-1948 to mid-1950.Mike Marqusee, "Diasporic Dimensions" in If I am Not for Myself, Journey of an Anti-Zionist Jew, 2011

1948 Arab–Israeli War

In 1948, there were approximately Jews in Iraq. The community was concentrated in Baghdad and Basra.

A few months before the UN vote on partition of Palestine, Iraq's prime minister Nuri al-Said told British diplomat Douglas Busk that he had nothing against the Iraqi Jews who were a long established and useful community. However, if the United Nations solution was not satisfactory, the Arab League might decide on severe measures against the Jews in Arab countries, and he would be unable to resist the proposal. In a speech at the General Assembly Hall at Flushing Meadow, New York, on Friday, 28 November 1947, Iraq's Foreign Minister, Fadel Jamall, included the following statement: "Partition imposed against the will of the majority of the people will jeopardize peace and harmony in the Middle East. Not only the uprising of the Arabs of Palestine is to be expected, but the masses in the Arab world cannot be restrained. The Arab–Jewish relationship in the Arab world will greatly deteriorate. There are more Jews in the Arab world outside of Palestine than there are in Palestine. In Iraq alone, we have about one hundred and fifty thousand Jews who share with Moslems and Christians all the advantages of political and economic rights. Harmony prevails among Moslems, Christians and Jews. But any injustice imposed upon the Arabs of Palestine will disturb the harmony among Jews and non-Jews in Iraq; it will breed inter-religious prejudice and hatred."

On 19 February 1949, al-Said acknowledged the bad treatment that the Jews had been victims of in Iraq during the recent months. He warned that unless Israel would behave itself, events might take place concerning the Iraqi Jews. Al-Said's threats had no impact at the political level on the fate of the Jews but were widely published in the media.

In 1948, the country was placed under martial law, and the penalties for Zionism were increased. Courts martial were used to intimidate wealthy Jews, Jews were again dismissed from civil service, quotas were placed on university positions, Jewish businesses were boycotted (E. Black, p. 347) and Shafiq Ades, one of the most important Jewish businessmen in the country (who was non-Zionist) was arrested and publicly hanged for allegedly selling goods to Israel. The Jewish community's general sentiment was that if a man as well connected and powerful as Ades could be eliminated by the state, other Jews would not be protected any longer.: "the general sentiment was chat if a man as well connected and powerful as Adas could he eliminated by the state, other Jews would not be protected any longer."

Additionally, like most Arab League states, Iraq forbade any legal emigration of its Jews after the 1948 war on the grounds that they might go to Israel and could strengthen that state. At the same time, increasing government oppression of the Jews fueled by anti-Israeli sentiment together with public expressions of antisemitism created an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.

However, by 1949 Jews were escaping Iraq at about a rate of 1000 a month. At the time, the British believed that the Zionist underground was agitating in Iraq in order to assist US fund-raising and to "offset the bad impression caused by the Jewish attitudes to Arab refugees".

The Iraqi government took in only 5000 of the approximately Palestinians who became refugees in 1948–49, "despite British and American efforts to persuade Iraq" to admit more. In January 1949, the pro-British Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Said discussed the idea of deporting Iraqi Jews to Israel with British officials, who explained that such a proposal would benefit Israel and adversely affect Arab countries. According to Meir-Glitzenstein, such suggestions were "not intended to solve either the problem of the Palestinian Arab refugees or the problem of the Jewish minority in Iraq, but to torpedo plans to resettle Palestinian Arab refugees in Iraq".

In July 1949 the British government proposed to Nuri al-Said a population exchange in which Iraq would agree to settle Palestinian refugees in Iraq; Nuri stated that if a fair arrangement could be agreed, "the Iraqi government would permit a voluntary move by Iraqi Jews to Palestine." The Iraqi-British proposal was reported in the press in October 1949.

On 14 October 1949 Nuri al-Said raised the exchange of population concept with the economic mission survey. At the Jewish Studies Conference in Melbourne in 2002, Philip Mendes summarised the effect of al-Said's vacillations on Jewish expulsion as: "In addition, the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Said tentatively canvassed and then shelved the possibility of expelling the Iraqi Jews, and exchanging them for an equal number of Palestinian Arabs."

Temporary legalization of Jewish immigration to Israel

In March 1950, Iraq reversed their earlier ban on Jewish emigration to Israel and passed a law of one-year duration allowing Jews to emigrate on the condition of relinquishing their Iraqi citizenship. According to Abbas Shiblak, many scholars state that this was a result of American, British and Israeli political pressure on Tawfiq al-Suwaidi's government, with some studies suggesting there were secret negotiations. According to Ian Black, the Iraqi government was motivated by "economic considerations, chief of which was that almost all the property of departing Jews reverted to the state treasury" and also that "Jews were seen as a restive and potentially troublesome minority that the country was best rid of." Israel mounted an operation called "Operation Ezra and Nehemiah" to bring as many of the Iraqi Jews as possible to Israel.

The Zionist movement at first tried to regulate the amount of registrants until issues relating to their legal status were clarified. Later, it allowed everyone to register. Two weeks after the law went into force, the Iraqi interior minister demanded a CID investigation over why Jews were not registering. A few hours after the movement allowed registration, four Jews were injured in a bomb attack at a café in Baghdad.

Immediately following the March 1950 Denaturalisation Act, the emigration movement faced significant challenges. Initially, local Zionist activists forbade the Iraqi Jews from registering for emigration with the Iraqi authorities, because the Israeli government was still discussing absorption planning. However, on 8 April, a bomb exploded in a Jewish cafe in Baghdad, and a meeting of the Zionist leadership later that day agreed to allow registration without waiting for the Israeli government; a proclamation encouraging registration was made throughout Iraq in the name of the State of Israel. However, at the same time immigrants were also entering Israel from Poland and Romania, countries in which Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion assessed there was a risk that the communist authorities would soon "close their gates", and Israel therefore delayed the transportation of Iraqi Jews. As a result, by September 1950, while 70,000 Jews had registered to leave, many selling their property and losing their jobs, only 10,000 had left the country. According to Esther Meir-Glitzenstein, "The thousands of poor Jews who had left or been expelled from the peripheral cities, and who had gone to Baghdad to wait for their opportunity to emigrate, were in an especially bad state. They were housed in public buildings and were being supported by the Jewish community. The situation was intolerable." The delay became a significant problem for the Iraqi government of Nuri al-Said (who replaced Tawfiq al-Suwaidi in mid-September 1950), as the large number of Jews "in limbo" created problems politically, economically and for domestic security. "Particularly infuriating" to the Iraqi government was the fact that the source of the problem was the Israeli government.

As a result of these developments, al-Said was determined to drive the Jews out of his country as quickly as possible. On 21 August 1950 al-Said threatened to revoke the license of the company transporting the Jewish exodus if it did not fulfill its daily quota of 500 Jews, and in September 1950, he summoned a representative of the Jewish community and warned the Jewish community of Baghdad to make haste; otherwise, he would take the Jews to the borders himself.

Two months before the law expired, after about 85,000 Jews had registered, a bombing campaign began against the Jewish community of Baghdad. The Iraqi government convicted and hanged a number of suspected Zionist agents for perpetrating the bombings, but the issue of who was responsible remains a subject of scholarly dispute. All but a few thousand of the remaining Jews then registered for emigration. In all, about 120,000 Jews left Iraq. Historian Esther Meir-Glitzenstein disputed the claim that these bombings were the primary motive for the emigration of Iraqi Jews, noting that most accounts by these Jews did not mention the bombings as a cause for immigration.

According to Gat, it is highly likely that one of Nuri as-Said's motives in trying to expel large numbers of Jews was the desire to aggravate Israel's economic problems (he had declared as such to the Arab world), although Nuri was well aware that the absorption of these immigrants was the policy on which Israel based its future. The Iraqi Minister of Defence told the U.S. ambassador that he had reliable evidence that the emigrating Jews were involved in activities injurious to the state and were in contact with communist agents.

Between April 1950 and June 1951, Jewish targets in Baghdad were struck five times. Iraqi authorities then arrested 3 Jews, claiming they were Zionist activists, and sentenced two — Shalom Salah Shalom and Yosef Ibrahim Basri—to death. The third man, Yehuda Tajar, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. In May and June 1951, arms caches were discovered that allegedly belonged to the Zionist underground, allegedly supplied by the Yishuv after the Farhud of 1941. There has been much debate as to whether the bombs were planted by the Mossad to encourage Iraqi Jews to emigrate to Israel or if they were planted by Muslim extremists to help drive out the Jews. This has been the subject of lawsuits and inquiries in Israel.

The emigration law was to expire in March 1951, one year after the law was enacted. On 10 March 1951, 64,000 Iraqi Jews were still waiting to emigrate, the government enacted a new law blocking the assets of Jews who had given up their citizenship, and extending the emigration period.

The bulk of the Jews leaving Iraq did so via Israeli airlifts named Operation Ezra and Nehemiah with special permission from the Iraqi government.

After 1951

A small Jewish community remained in Iraq following Operation Ezra and Nehemiah. Restrictions were placed on them after the Ba'ath Party came to power in 1963, and following the Six-Day War, persecution greatly increased. Jews had their property expropriated and bank accounts frozen, their ability to do business was restricted, they were dismissed from public positions, and were placed under house arrest for extended periods of time. In 1968, scores of Jews were imprisoned on charges of spying for Israel. In 1969, about 50 were executed following show trials, most infamously in a mass public hanging of 14 men including 9 Jews, and a hundred thousand Iraqis marched past the bodies in a carnival-like atmosphere. Jews began sneaking across the border to Iran, from where they proceeded to Israel or the UK. In the early 1970s, the Iraqi government permitted Jewish emigration and the majority of the remaining community left Iraq. By 2003, it was estimated that this once-thriving community had been reduced to 35 Jews in Baghdad and a handful more in Kurdish areas of the country.

Egypt

Anti-Jewish sentiment

Although there was a small indigenous community, most Jews in Egypt in the early twentieth century were recent immigrants to the country, who did not share the Arabic language and culture.: "Not only were they not Muslim, and mainly not of Egyptian origin; most of them did not share the Arabic language and culture, either. Added to these factors was their political diversity." Many were members of the highly diverse Mutamassirun community, which included other groups such as Greeks, Armenians, Syrian Christians and Italians, in addition to the British and French colonial authorities. Until the late 1930s, the Jews, both indigenous and new immigrants, like other minorities tended to apply for foreign citizenship in order to benefit from a foreign protection. The Egyptian government made it very difficult for non-Muslim foreigners to become naturalized. The poorer Jews, most of them indigenous and Oriental Jews, were left stateless, although they were legally eligible for Egyptian nationality. The drive to Egyptianize public life and the economy harmed the minorities, but the Jews had more strikes against them than the others. In the agitation against the Jews of the late thirties and the forties, the Jew was seen as an enemy The Jews were attacked because of their real or alleged links to Zionism. Jews were not discriminated because of their religion or race, like in Europe, but for political reasons.

The Egyptian Prime Minister Mahmoud an-Nukrashi Pasha told the British ambassador: "All Jews were potential Zionists nd... anyhow all Zionists were Communists." On 24 November 1947, the head of the Egyptian delegation to the United Nations General Assembly, Muhammad Hussein Heykal Pasha, said, "the lives of Jews in Moslem countries would be jeopardized by the establishment of a Jewish state." On 24 November 1947, Dr Heykal Pasha said: "if the U.N decide to amputate a part of Palestine in order to establish a Jewish state, ... Jewish blood will necessarily be shed elsewhere in the Arab world ... to place in certain and serious danger a million Jews." Mahmud Bey Fawzi (Egypt) said: "Imposed partition was sure to result in bloodshed in Palestine and in the rest of the Arab world."

The exodus of the foreign mutamassirun ("Egyptianized") community, which included a significant number of Jews, began following the First World War, and by the end of the 1960s the entire mutamassirun was effectively eliminated. According to Andrew Gorman, this was primarily a result of the "decolonization process and the rise of Egyptian nationalism".

The exodus of Egyptian Jews was impacted by the 1945 Anti-Jewish Riots in Egypt, though such emigration was not significant as the government stamped the violence out and the Egyptian Jewish community leaders were supportive of King Farouk. In 1948, approximately 75,000 Jews lived in Egypt. Around 20,000 Jews left Egypt during 1948–49 following the events of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War (including the 1948 Cairo bombings). A further 5000 left between 1952 and 1956, in the wake of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 and later the false flag Lavon Affair. The Israeli invasion as part of the Suez Crisis caused a significant upsurge in emigration, with 14,000 Jews leaving in less than six months between November 1956 and March 1957, and 19,000 further emigrating over the next decade.

1956 Suez Crisis

In October 1956, when the Suez Crisis erupted, the position of the mutamassirun, including the Jewish community, was significantly impacted.

1000 Jews were arrested and 500 Jewish businesses were seized by the government. A statement branding the Jews as "Zionists and enemies of the state" was read out in the mosques of Cairo and Alexandria. Jewish bank accounts were confiscated and many Jews lost their jobs. Lawyers, engineers, doctors and teachers were not allowed to work in their professions. Thousands of Jews were ordered to leave the country and told that they may be sent to concentration camps if they stayed. They were allowed to take only one suitcase and a small sum of cash, and forced to sign declarations "donating" their property to the Egyptian government. Foreign observers reported that members of Jewish families were taken hostage, apparently to insure that those forced to leave did not speak out against the Egyptian government. Jews were expelled or left, forced out by the anti-Jewish feeling in Egypt. Some 25,000 Jews, almost half of the Jewish community left, mainly for Europe, the United States, South America and Israel, after being forced to sign declarations that they were leaving voluntarily, and agreed with the confiscation of their assets. Similar measures were enacted against British and French nationals in retaliation for the invasion. By 1957 the Jewish population of Egypt had fallen to 15,000.

1960s and 1970s

In 1960, the American embassy in Cairo wrote of Egyptian Jews that: "There is definitely a strong desire among most Jews to emigrate, but this is prompted by the feeling that they have limited opportunity, or from fear for the future, rather than by any direct or present tangible mistreatment at the hands of the government."

In 1967, Jews were detained and tortured, and Jewish homes were confiscated. The vast majority of Jewish men without foreign passports were detained. Following the Six Day War, the community fell to 2,500 members and by the 1970s practically ceased to exist, with the exception of a few remaining families. As of 2015, an estimated 30 Jews remained in Egypt, most of them elderly.

Yemen

The Yemeni exodus began in 1881, seven months prior to the more well-known First Aliyah from Eastern Europe. The exodus came about as a result of European Jewish investment in the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, which created jobs for labouring Jews alongside local Muslim labour thereby providing an economic incentive for emigration. This was aided by the reestablishment of Ottoman control over the Yemen Vilayet allowing freedom of movement within the empire, and the opening of the Suez canal, which reduced the cost of travelling considerably. Between 1881 and 1948, 15,430 Jews had immigrated to Palestine legally.

In 1942, prior to the formulation of the One Million Plan, David Ben-Gurion described his intentions with respect to such potential policy to a meeting of experts and Jewish leaders, stating that "It is a mark of great failure by Zionism that we have not yet eliminated the Yemen exile iaspora"

If one includes Aden, there were about 63,000 Jews in Yemen in 1948. Today, there are about 200 left. In 1947, rioters killed at least 80 Jews in Aden, a British colony in southern Yemen. In 1948 the new Zaydi Imam Ahmad bin Yahya unexpectedly allowed his Jewish subjects to leave Yemen, and tens of thousands poured into Aden. The Israeli government's Operation Magic Carpet evacuated around 44,000 Jews from Yemen to Israel in 1949 and 1950. Emigration continued until 1962, when the civil war in Yemen broke out. A small community remained until 1976, though it has mostly immigrated from Yemen since. In March 2016, the Jewish population in Yemen was estimated to be about 50.

Lebanon and Syria

Background

The area now known as Lebanon and Syria was the home of one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world, dating back to at least 300 BCE.

Lebanon

In November 1945, fourteen Jews were killed in anti-Jewish riots in Tripoli. Unlike in other Arab countries, the Lebanese Jewish community did not face grave peril during the 1948 Arab–Israel War and was reasonably protected by governmental authorities. Lebanon was also the only Arab country that saw a post-1948 increase in its Jewish population, principally due to the influx of Jews coming from Syria and Iraq.

The 1932 national census puts the country's Jewish population at around 3,500. In 1948, there were approximately 5,200 Jews in Lebanon. Their number increased after the first Arab-Israeli war to roughly 9000 in 1951, including an estimated 2000 Jewish asylum seekers. The largest communities of Jews in Lebanon were in Beirut, and the villages near Mount Lebanon, Deir al Qamar, Barouk, Bechamoun, and Hasbaya. While the French mandate saw a general improvement in conditions for Jews, the Vichy regime placed restrictions on them. The Jewish community actively supported Lebanese independence after World War II and had mixed attitudes toward Zionism.

However, negative attitudes toward Jews increased after 1948, and, by 1967, most Lebanese Jews had emigrated—to Israel, the United States, Canada, and France. In 1971, Albert Elia, the 69-year-old Secretary-General of the Lebanese Jewish community, was kidnapped in Beirut by Syrian agents and imprisoned under torture in Damascus, along with Syrian Jews who had attempted to flee the country. A personal appeal by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan, to the late President Hafez al-Assad failed to secure Elia's release.

The remaining Jewish community was particularly hard hit by the civil war in Lebanon, and by the mid-1970s, the community collapsed. In the 1980s, Hezbollah kidnapped several Lebanese Jewish businessmen, and in the 2004 elections, only one Jew voted in the municipal elections. There are now only between 20 and 40 Jews living in Lebanon.

Syria

In 1947, rioters in Aleppo burned the city's Jewish quarter and killed 75 people.Daniel Pipes, ''Greater Syria: The History of an Ambition'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990) p. 57, records 75 victims of the Aleppo massacre. As a result, nearly half of the Jewish population of Aleppo opted to leave the city,Shindler, Colin. ''A History of modern Israel''. Cambridge University Press 2008. pp. 63–64. initially to neighbouring Lebanon.

In 1948, there were approximately 30,000 Jews in Syria. In 1949, following defeat in the Arab–Israeli War, the CIA-backed March 1949 Syrian coup d'état installed Husni al-Za'im as the President of Syria. Za'im permitted the emigration of large numbers of Syrian Jews, and 5000 left to Israel.

The subsequent Syrian governments placed severe restrictions on the Jewish community, including barring emigration. In 1948, the government banned the sale of Jewish property and in 1953 all Jewish bank accounts were frozen. The Syrian secret police closely monitored the Jewish community. Over the following years, many Jews managed to escape, and the work of supporters, particularly Judy Feld Carr, in smuggling Jews out of Syria, and bringing their plight to the attention of the world, raised awareness of their situation.

Although the Syrian government attempted to stop Syrian Jews from exporting their assets, the American consulate in Damascus noted in 1950 that "the majority of Syrian Jews have managed to dispose of their property and to emigrate to Lebanon, Italy, and Israel". In November 1954, the Syrian government temporarily lifted its ban on Jewish emigration. The various restrictions that the Syrian government placed on the Jewish population were severe. Jews were legally barred from working for the government or for banks, obtaining driver's licenses, having telephones in their homes or business premises, or purchasing property.

In March 1964, the Syrian government issued a decree prohibiting Jews from traveling more than three miles from the limits of their hometowns. In 1967, in the aftermath of the Six-Day War, antisemitic riots broke out in Damascus and Aleppo. Jews were allowed to leave their homes only for few hours daily. Many Jews found it impossible to pursue their business ventures because the larger community was boycotting their products. In 1970, Israel launched Operation Blanket, a covert military and intelligence operation to evacuate Syrian Jews, managing to bring a few dozen young Jews to Israel.

Clandestine Jewish emigration continued, as Jews attempted to sneak across the borders into Lebanon or Turkey, often with the help of smugglers, and make contact with Israeli agents or local Jewish communities. In 1972, demonstrations were held by 1000 Syrian Jews in Damascus, after four Jewish women were killed as they attempted to flee Syria. The protest surprised Syrian authorities, who closely monitored Jewish community, eavesdropped on their telephone conversations, and tampered with their mail.

Following the Madrid Conference of 1991, the United States put pressure on the Syrian government to ease its restrictions on Jews, and during Passover in 1992, the government of Syria began granting exit visas to Jews on condition that they did not emigrate to Israel. At that time, the country had several thousand Jews. The majority left for the United States—most to join the large Syrian Jewish community in South Brooklyn, New York—although some went to France and Turkey, and 1262 Syrian Jews who wanted to immigrate to Israel were brought there in a two-year covert operation.

In 2004, the Syrian government attempted to establish better relations with its emigrants, and a delegation of a dozen Jews of Syrian origin visited Syria in the spring of that year. As of December 2014, only 17 Jews remain in Syria, according to Rabbi Avraham Hamra; nine men and eight women, all over 60 years of age.

Transjordan and Jordanian-annexed West Bank

Depopulation of local Jewish communities

Following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and the 1949 Armistice Agreements

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